Hello anyone who may or may not be reading! I'm Phalanx, currently a member of clan DarkOnyx. So today I decided, hey, I'mma make me a blog. Don't really have much of an interesting life, but I've decided to make a daily blog entry along with a replay on the first ladder game in StarCraft2 I play that day (mainly to encourage myself to play a game a day), and write up an analysis of my thought process and decision making during that game! Perhaps this could help out some new players looking to improve, or maybe it'll just help me to get better myself!

Before making my first replay analysis, I suppose I should give some background on myself. My name is Sola Shirai, AKA "Phalanx" on the NA server, 16 year old male. I currently live in Japan at Misawa Air Force Base, which is god awful boring. In SC2, I've almost exclusively played Protoss since my 8th grade year, although I first started to seriously play last summer after entering the clan Dark Onyx. Currently at diamond league, and I keep telling myself "yeah, you're about to be masters!" but it just doesn't seem to happen yet...

So, have I bored away any audience yet? Not that they would have read up to here. So here goes my first replay analysis, and hopefully I'll be able to keep up my focus to be able to actually write every day!

replay : http://drop.sc/332707

I felt good that the first game to write up about would be a fairly easy victory! A diamond level PvP game, and what would ya know, the enemy 4gated. Haven't seen nearly as many 4gates now as I used to, but I guess some people still just wanna keep the tradition alive.

Looking back on the replay, I realized just how early KKing's first gateway was... a 9 gate!? Is this even the standard for a 4gate? Before I managed to get my scout in, I was looking towards executing some sort of phoenix opening, taking my 2 gasses at 15 supply... However, as my probe entered at 19 supply, seeing the lack of 2nd assimilator and the chronoboost saved up was an easy easy giveaway to his 4gating little a$$. Aww yiss, scouting for the win!



Oh my I really did learn more than I expected from this replay, I realized that the attack was a 3 gate and not a 4 gate! xD WELL! I'll have to make sure to actually watch the replay before writing next time... but for this time, oh well. Got supply blocked at 34, a potentially fatal mistake that could have very well lost me the game. Had I not forgotten the supply, I could have prevented the next move up with another sentry and I would have been able to get the 3rd immortal out sooner as well. Once the supply block was lifted and a new wave of gateway units came forth, that immortal just rolled over his mainly stalker force. It could have been an even more 1 sided game had I actually saved my MSC for a photon overcharge; yet another little thing I must watch out for.


I like my MSCs niiiice and dead.

So now just for some little decision making that went through my head, for the benefit of any lower league players who may be reading this for education (learning!? WTF I'm here to enjoy games!). First of all, as soon as a 4 gate is scouted, DON'T go stargate. I'm a diehard stargate opener, but phoenixes aren't going to protect you against a 4gate. Drop down a robotics facility ASAP when 4gate is scouted, even if it means cancelling some tech, then build up 3 additional gateways. I stopped making probes as well since I was likely ahead, and made sure only 2 were in each assimilator. The first sentry could have been out earlier so that I delayed the push until my 1st immortal was out, but no one's perfect! Managing to hand on until the immortal pops out (then keeping it alive) is essential to the defense. Using a photon overcharge for bonus point never hurts either.

And thus another game was won on the ladder... THE END!!! Hope you may have learned a bit more or at least laughed at my mediocre game play, and I hope to keep this up and maybe even get some readers who actually read the blogs! GL HF!



P.S. Check out clan Dark Onyx! We have a facebook page as well as a website that's under construction... just a simple like on the facebook page could even maybe be the first steps towards getting somewhere!
https://www.facebook.com/DarkOnyxFTW?fref=ts
http://darkonyxftw.com/

P.S.S corgies.
http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1085/1383874474_738ca93433_z.jpg